In the ceaseless search for improving the performance of the tires, the monitoring of tires is in the interest of several companies within this market segment. Particularly in fleets of trucks and buses, the tires are one of the items of most serious wearing out and, consequently, of the highest cost for these companies. Thus it is very advantageous to maximize their useful lives.
Many companies developed processes for monitoring through telemetry systems regarding the physical statuses of a tire, like rotation, temperature, pressure and other items; however, the readers, being presently utilized for the reading of the transponders installed in the tires, are generic equipments, without a dedicated software for the task of data gathering in the fleet. When a more detailed data gathering is necessary, the transponder reader works in conjunction with a palmtop or notebook (utilized as data gatherers). A specific software for information entry is developed for such equipment. The transponder reader feeds that software, transmitting the number that identifies the element that is being worked out. That construction of equipment requires two expensive equipments, the transponder reader and the palmtop or notebook, the development of a software for the tires management and the integration of the software and the gatherer with the transponder reader, requiring qualified technical work, normally not available at the transportation companies and other fleets. In addition to that, the usability of the set is uncomfortable requiring the handling of two equipments in the field.
With the purpose of covering such needs, there are some conventional management systems that utilize cards or loose-leaf books for the data gathering, visual fire marking for identification of the tires and visual code to identify the vehicle. Some of them utilize a PC software for entry and management of the gathered data. When the vehicle comes back to the fleet, an operator grabs the card regarding it and performs the data gathering. It is verified, in a visual way and manually, the identification and the place of each tire in the vehicle, the deepness of the grooves and the internal pressure of the tires. The gathered data are written on the card and they are sent to another operator who receives them and transcribes the data to the management software.
Such conventional management systems are slow also due to the difficulty to read the tire identification data particularly of internal tires of vehicles with double rounding. They are also imprecise due to the abrasion of the fire marking of tires identification and the mistakes in the reading and transcription that are performed in a manual way.
Consequently, in order to solve the aforementioned inconveniences, a system and a data gathering means according the present invention has been developed for fleet management which can be used by transportation companies, bus companies or other companies that have a need of managing the use and wearing of their tires, and which fully meets the proposed purposes, providing a series of practical and economical advantages, reducing equipment costs and offering a better cost/benefit relationship and important differentials as compared with the conventional systems and readers.